Dr. Lorgia García Peña Named 2021 Freedom Scholar
“For the majority of our human history, we have had a small group of people who have been in power. The majority of people have been denied basic access, basic rights...How many times are we going to have to ask that our lives matter?”
Congratulations to Dr. Lorgia García Peña, who was recently named one of six 2021 Freedom Scholars. Joining Dr. García Peña are Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley, Dr. Cathy J. Cohen, Dr. Orsianmi Burton, Professor Amna Akbar, J.D., and Professor Angélica Cházar, J.D.
You can learn more about this year's recipients by visiting the following link:
https://www.caseygrants.org/freedom-scholars
Dr. Lorgia García Peña notes:
“For the majority of our human history, we have had a small group of people who have been in power. The majority of people have been denied basic access, basic rights...How many times are we going to have to ask that our lives matter?”
Click below to watch the full video clip of Dr. García Peña, produced by the Marguerite Casey Foundation (or click play on the video above):
https://www.caseygrants.org/freedom-scholars-2021/lorgia-garcia-pena-phd
The 2021 Freedom Scholars awards are sponsored by the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Group Health Foundation. Each fellow receives a one-time $250,000 award. As per the official website, “Freedom Scholars awards represent a commitment to scholarship relevant to movements led by Black and Indigenous people, migrants and queer people, poor people and people of color. The awards also recognize the role that scholars play in cultivating and nurturing movements for justice and freedom.”
“Lorgia García Peña is the Mellon Associate Professor at Tufts University’s Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora where she focuses on Latinx studies, global Blackness, and Dominican diaspora studies.”
“She is the author of The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nations, and Archives of Contradictions, which reveals, through the Dominican experience, how marginality is created through acts of exclusion. The Borders of Dominicanidad has won multiple awards, including the 2016 LASA Latino/a Studies Book Award and the 2016 Isis Duarte Book Prize in Haiti and Dominican Studies. Peña is currently working on an on-going book-length project titled Translating Blackness: Migrations and Detours of Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspectives.”
Congratulations to Dr. Lorgia García Peña and the entire class of 2021 Freedom Scholars!
